Paul Steven Hacker: A San Antonio Bankruptcy Attorney Who Was General Counsel of an NYSE Company

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A San Antonio Bankruptcy Attorney Who Was General Counsel of a New York Stock Exchange Company Before He Ever Filed a Chapter 7 Petition

Paul Steven Hacker didn’t start his legal career filing bankruptcy petitions. Before founding his own San Antonio practice in 2005, he was a partner at two global law firms and served as vice president and general counsel of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange — corporate-side experience in debt restructurings, workouts, mergers, and acquisitions that most solo bankruptcy attorneys don’t carry into their practice.

At a Glance

Career History

Hacker was admitted to the Texas bar in 1993 after earning his J.D. cum laude from the University of Tennessee College of Law, following an A.B. magna cum laude from Lenoir-Rhyne College. Before founding his San Antonio firm in 2005, his firm’s own site describes him as a partner at two global law firms and vice president and general counsel of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, with direct experience in debt and equity capitalization, venture capital and bank financing, debt restructurings and workouts, and mergers and acquisitions — a corporate-finance background that sits well above the typical résumé of a consumer bankruptcy attorney.

Practice Concentration

The firm practices across three genuinely distinct areas: bankruptcy and insolvency (Chapter 7, 11, and 13), family law (divorce, child custody, child support, and property division), and personal injury (including motorcycle accidents, workers’ compensation, and defective products). This is a broader practice than a bankruptcy-exclusive boutique, and a prospective bankruptcy client should understand they are hiring a general-practice attorney with genuine bankruptcy experience rather than a specialist whose entire caseload is bankruptcy filings.

Track Record

As a consumer and small-business bankruptcy practice, there is no comparable jury-verdict or settlement-figure table for the bankruptcy side specifically — a discharge or confirmed repayment plan is the outcome, not a monetary award. Hacker’s corporate-side background (debt restructurings, workouts, M&A) is documented on the firm’s own site but Awesome Attorneys was not able to independently verify specific transaction details or outcomes from public sources.

Client Voice

Independent reviews specifically describe the foreclosure and bankruptcy side of the practice favorably — one reviewer facing a notice of foreclosure described the team as extremely helpful and responsive to repeated questions, specifically naming “Steve and Tina” for their patience through the process, and a separate reviewer praised the thoroughness and promptness of the bankruptcy handling specifically. Awesome Attorneys did not locate any significant negative reviews for the firm during this research.

Beyond the Practice

Hacker’s pre-firm career — global law firm partnership followed by general counsel of a publicly traded NYSE company — is a genuinely unusual credential set for an attorney now running a general San Antonio practice that includes consumer bankruptcy work, and reflects a different kind of institutional experience than most solo or small-firm bankruptcy attorneys bring to the table.

Recognition

Awesome Attorneys did not find a Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification for Hacker in bankruptcy or any other area, and does not apply “specialist” language on that basis. The firm’s primary credentialing signal is Hacker’s documented pre-firm corporate and general-counsel career rather than a TBLS certification or peer-nomination award.

Texas Bankruptcy Backdrop

San Antonio Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings go through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas, with the creditors’ meeting typically held at the Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building downtown. Texas’s homestead exemption protects a debtor’s primary residence at unlimited value on up to 10 acres in a city (100 acres, 200 for a family, in the country), and exempts up to $50,000 in personal property for a single filer ($100,000 for a family). A Chapter 7 case typically runs 90 to 120 days from filing to discharge; Chapter 13 repayment plans run 3 to 5 years. This is general background information, not legal advice, and current figures and eligibility should be confirmed with a licensed attorney.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Hacker’s clearest differentiator is a corporate-finance and general-counsel background well beyond what most bankruptcy attorneys carry into a consumer or small-business practice, paired with two decades running his own San Antonio firm and specific, favorable reviews naming staff by name for foreclosure-related bankruptcy work. The honest trade-off: no TBLS certification is on record, and the practice spans bankruptcy, family law, and personal injury rather than functioning as a bankruptcy-exclusive boutique — a structural fact worth weighing for a client who wants an attorney whose entire practice is bankruptcy. This is a reasonable fit for a client facing a bankruptcy matter with real corporate-finance or business complexity, where Hacker’s institutional background is directly relevant.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from Hacker Law Firm’s own website (thehackerlawfirm.com), the State Bar of Texas’s self-reported attorney directory, Avvo, Martindale, Lawyers.com, and independent third-party review platforms including Yelp.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, sponsored, or reviewed prior to publication by Hacker Law Firm or any affiliated party. Inclusion in this directory does not constitute a referral, endorsement, or guarantee of outcome, and nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice.